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A History of Sanskrit Literature c34.s1: 1. The Development of Indian Medicine

A History of Sanskrit Literature c34.s1

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English

1. The Development of Indian Medicine

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WE have in the Vedic literature abundant evidence of the magic which precedes or accompanies in simple peoples the practice of medical art. The belief in demons of disease which dominates the *Atharvaveda* and the ritual text-books is preserved through Indian medicine, for one of its topics is the treatment of diseases derived from this source. Anatomy had begun to be studied,¹ possibly as a result of the constant slaughter of victims by the priests for the animal offering; we have also knowledge of Vedic ideas of embryology and hygiene. Late tradition recognizes the Āyurveda, also called Vaidyaçāstra, science of the doctor *par excellence*, as a Upāṅga of the *Atharvaveda* and ascribes to it eight topics, major surgery, minor surgery, healing of disease, demonology, children's diseases, toxicology, elixirs, and aphrodisiacs. Patañjali proves the early cultivation of the science in Sanskrit by mentioning Vaidyaka along with the Aṅgas and Itihāsa, Purāṇa, and Vākovākya. Moreover, we have many names of ancient sages who gave instruction, Ātreya, Kāçyapa, Hārīta, Agniveça, and Bheḍa, but, though Saṁhitās occur attributed to these worthies, we can be reasonably certain that they are generally not original works. It is, indeed, probable, though not exactly proved, that in the earliest period of literary compositions on medicine works were styled Tantras or Kalpas and took the form of monographs on special topics and not of Saṁhitās, which are comprehensive treatises covering a wide range of topics. Ātreya is of these sages the one usually declared to have been the founder of the science, but Cāṇakya also is credited with writing on medicine.²

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¹ *Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, x. 5. 4. 12; xii. 3. 2. 3 f.; *Atharvaveda*, x. 2. See J. Jolly, *Medicin* (1901); Girindranath Mukhopadhyay, *History of Indian Medicine and Surgical Instruments of the Hindus*, whose views are, however, often unacceptable.

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² C. Zachariae, WZKM. xxviii. 206 f.; he is known to Arabic writers as Šānaq.

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Buddhist tradition talks of Jīvaka, who studied under Ātreya and was an expert on children’s diseases; the *Vinaya Piṭaka*¹ and other texts show a wide knowledge of elementary medicine, surgical instruments, the use of hot baths, and so forth. It was, of course, inevitable that living as they did in communities the Buddhists had early to consider the tendance of their sick members.²

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¹ *Mahāvagga*, vi. 1–14; *Majjhimanikāya*, 101 and 105.

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² Cf. Takakusu, *I-tsing*, pp. 130 ff., 222 ff.; Jolly, ZDMG. lvi. 565 ff.

Cites (6)